|
|||||||||
 |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
RESEARCHApril 30, 2009Secret to cellulose's resilience revealed Make
a computer model of the hydrogen bonds within and between cellulose
molecules and you're a step closer to cheap biofuel.The model reveals one of the reasons cellulose is so difficult to break down: its hydrogen bonds rearrange themselves as the temperature changes. The shiftiness allows cellulose to remain stable across a wide range of temperatures. The adaptable nature of cellulose's hydrogen bonds also means that they're not ever in the strongest configuration possible, however. This makes it possible to use enzymes and temperatures to affordably break down the molecules. The trick is finding the right combination. The degree of difficulty of breaking cellulose down correlates to the cost of making biofuel from biomass; the simpler the process the cheaper the biofuel. Research paper: The Stability of Cellulose: A Statistical Perspective from a Coarse-Grained Model of Hydrogen-Bond Networks Biophysical Journal, April 22, 2009 Researchers' homepages: Tongye Shen S. Gnanakaran Related stories and briefs: Chemical simplifies cellulosic biofuel production -- related research Biomass-to-biofuel simplified -- related research Back to ERN home |
ShareFeedsNews | Blog
E-mail headlines Energy-related books and products from Amazon.com |
© Copyright Technology Research News
2008-2010. All rights reserved.
